Women Who Code Announces Speakers of CONNECT 2016 Seattle Conference

Event Designed To Inspire Women to Excel in Tech Will Feature Technical Workshops, Career Development Sessions, and Presentations From Prestigious Industry Leaders

SEATTLE, March 15, 2016 — Women Who Code (WWCode) has released details about the upcoming CONNECT 2016 Conference being held at the Galvanize Pioneer Square in Seattle, Washington on March 19th and 20th. This includes a list of speakers and sponsors, as well as the full agenda of technical and careers talks, workshops, and networking, and recruiting sessions that will take place during the two-day event, whose purpose is to encourage women to succeed in technology careers.

CONNECT 2016 is set to feature some of the technology industry's most influential leaders. Keynote speakers for the event include Nandini Ramani the VP of Engineering at Twitter, Regina Wallace-Jones the Head of Security Operations at Facebook and a member of the Women Who Code Advisory Board, Alaina Percival the CEO and Board Chair of Women Who Code, and Mike Curtis the VP of Engineering at Airbnb.

In addition to the keynote speakers, CONNECT 2016 will also be hosting tech talks, and technical workshops featuring over 20 industry experts such as Michele Titolo of Capital One, Mary Hamilton of Accenture, Ona Anicello of Microsoft, and April King from the Mozilla Corporation. There will also be a number of career development sessions led by industry insiders such as Laura Bellamy of VMWare, Zoe Madden-Wood of Carbon 5, Vinu Charanya of Twitter, and Women Who Code’s Global Leadership Director, Joey Rosenberg, as well as many more.

CONNECT 2016 is being sponsored by a number of prestigious organizations. This list includes companies such as VMware, Capital One, Plex, Docker, MailChimp, Microsoft, Uber, Northeastern University–Seattle, Heroku, Mozilla, Accenture, New Relic, Google, Snapchat, Amazon, Women Techmakers, Yelp, Skytap, Inc., The Digital Innovation Group at Providence, INRIX, and Airbnb.

Women Who Code CEO Alaina Percival spoke about the event saying, “It’s been a great experience working with Women Who Code Seattle to make CONNECT 2016 a reality. This conference is going to be a showcase of some of the finest minds in the tech industry, and will be an inspiration for our members and women everywhere.”

Women Who Code boasts local networks that operate in 20 countries and 60 cities around the world. CONNECT 2016 is led by the Seattle Network’s leadership team, including Women Who Code Seattle Director, Saranya Karuppusamy. “It’s so beneficial when we bring our community together to pool the collective skill-sets, knowledge, and talents,” says Saranya. “That’s the value of the WWCode community; it makes each of us stronger,” Saranya is a vital member of the leadership team that is making CONNECT 2016 Seattle possible.

Seattle Director, Sandra Persing is also an integral part of the leadership team. When speaking about the conference, Sandra relayed, “this is our opportunity to show that we are doing something, and something big, about all the talk around the lack of women in tech, getting women into the industry, and helping them to succeed. CONNECT 2016 is our way to dispel the infamous Seattle Freeze.”

Women Who Code is an international non-profit dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers. Our goal is to empower women with the skills needed for professional advancement, and provide environments for networking and mentorship. The organization executes more than 3,000 events around the world each year, has garnered a membership exceeding 50,000, and has a presence in 20 countries. Help us to empower even more women to advance in tech with the training and community they need to succeed by supporting our #WWCode networks. Learn more at womenwhocode.com